this post was submitted on 18 Dec 2025
332 points (98.3% liked)

News

33652 readers
2338 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

It will go down in history as the “Bah! Humbug!” address.

But this was not an address by a self-confident man dishing out Christmas presents to the nation. It smacked of desperation from one who can feel the December windchill of opinion polls – a Reuters/ Ipsos poll on Tuesday showed just 33% of US adults approve of how Trump has handled the economy – dissent in his own Republican ranks and the Jeffrey Epstein files looming on Friday.

The speech also revealed Trump’s need for a reliable foil. Over the years Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have been useful nemeses for a man and movement defined less by what they are for than what they are against.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world 144 points 1 day ago (3 children)

“Eleven months ago, I inherited a mess, and I’m fixing it,” Trump said, starting as he meant to go on by telling a lie: he claimed that inflation was the worst in 48 years when he took office, when in fact it had come back down to 3%.

He went on to place blame at the feet of Biden, previous trade deals, immigrants and what he described as a corrupt system.

Fascists can't actually solve problems, even though they will tell you they're the only ones who can. They don't have problem solving skills, that's why they're fascists. They blame, deflect and scapegoat, and do it very aggressively and forcefully. Unfortunately, many people mistake that for strength. But fascists are not strong, they're weak, and they try to compensate for their weakness by acting very strong, in very superficial ways. That's why they are so focused on hyper masculine performance.

REAL strength is not an over inflated ego, it's not threats and cruelty, it's not being ignorant and proud of it, it's not unnecessary aggression and violence. Real strength is accountability. Weak people think it shows strength to never admit when you're wrong, but that's completely false. Real strength is owning up to your mistakes, but not so you can crumble into self loathing, it's so you can learn from them and become better. Real strength is learning, it's knowledge and understanding.

You can't fix a problem that you don't understand, and you can't understand a problem if you are unwilling to look at it honestly and critically, without bias. But that takes humility and weak people think humility is weakness, and they think arrogance is strength. The opposite is true. Humility is STRENGTH. That's why fascists can never lead, because leadership takes real strength and they don't have it.

[–] Today@lemmy.world 22 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

He doesn't know the difference between a strongman and a strong man.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] QuarterSwede@lemmy.world 20 points 23 hours ago

Freaking bingo! Well said!!

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] KnitWit@lemmy.world 58 points 20 hours ago (1 children)
[–] 315am@lemmy.world 9 points 9 hours ago

This made me LOL IRL so I made you a picture.

collapsed inline media

[–] WanderWisley@lemmy.world 56 points 22 hours ago (3 children)
[–] titanicx@lemmy.zip 30 points 21 hours ago (5 children)

God this would be ideal for this dumb fuck. That way he doesn't die, but he lives as an idiotic vegetable for the rest of his life suffering. Also coincidentally did you know that Donald j Trump who is best friends with Jeffrey r Epstein is a child rapist? We've seen pictures and evidence in the releases so far and this is a well-known fact.

[–] WanderWisley@lemmy.world 22 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

The best/worst case scenario is he has a massive stroke live on TV but somehow survives but is wheelchair bound and has to use a Stephen Hawking style speaker in order to talk. It would be hilarious to have him wheel out on stage and with his robot voice say “the deep state did this to me!”

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] samus12345@sh.itjust.works 13 points 17 hours ago

Show him the video of himself mocking the disabled reporter on a loop.

[–] IndridCold@lemmy.ca 8 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

My friend had a large stroke. He can barely talk, he's confined to a wheel chair, his hands are mostly useless, and he slumps over and drools on himself. The kicker is his brain it like he was before the stroke. Hes a prisoner in broken skin suit.

That's the life I want for Trump.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] ShellMonkey@piefed.socdojo.com 55 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Trump also announced that he would send a “warrior dividend” of $1,776 to 1.45 million US service members in the coming week. He said it had been made possible by revenue from tariffs, failing to mention those same tariffs have driven prices up.

First, it won't happen because he talks out his ass by default. A more important second though, how insulting is it that he thinks a token payment is going to buy him the loyalty of the military? I'm strikingly reminded of Caligula in the movie promising '10 gold pieces to every man'.

[–] falseWhite@lemmy.world 45 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Weren't tariff dividends meant to be sent to every American below certain income? So now he's just trying to bribe the military, because fuck those civilians protesting against him.

[–] ramble81@lemmy.zip 33 points 23 hours ago

So now we’re up to:

  • $5,000 from DOGE
  • $2,000 from Tariffs
  • $1,776 from Tariffs to service members

And of course the true amount of the $8,776 people will see…. $0

[–] ryper@lemmy.ca 17 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Maybe someone explained to him that there wasn't enough money for the previous plan. Or maybe he doesn't remember there was a previous plan.

[–] Zahille7@lemmy.world 16 points 23 hours ago

Or it's even more simple than that, and he was just straight lying about the previous plan.

[–] snooggums@piefed.world 7 points 23 hours ago

Why not both?

[–] WindyRebel@lemmy.world 9 points 23 hours ago

Keep the ones happy who will enforce national gestapo and an at-home war on dissenters. That’s what this is. A bribe.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Lemmyoutofhere@lemmy.ca 11 points 21 hours ago

Sadly a token payment works on an alarming percentage of people.

[–] rayyy@piefed.social 6 points 22 hours ago (1 children)
[–] ShellMonkey@piefed.socdojo.com 6 points 21 hours ago

Cute, so claiming credit for other's work as usual. The way it's phrased is made to sound like some novel thing he specifically is doing.

[–] Lemmyoutofhere@lemmy.ca 34 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That was some strange deranged rant. WTF even was that?

[–] MutantTailThing@lemmy.world 29 points 1 day ago

Tantrum. This is called a tantrum.

[–] setsubyou@lemmy.world 33 points 1 day ago (5 children)

apparently this was a sugar high: just before the remarks started, according to a White House pool report, an usher brought in three Diet Cokes and ice.

But… that’s the sugar free one… he must have been on something else.

[–] Sludge@sh.itjust.works 14 points 1 day ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) (3 children)

I mean, 3 diet cokes is a lot of caffeine.

Edit: I've been corrected that 3 diet cokes is, in fact, not a lot of caffeine. Guess he's micro-dosing amphetamines. My bad, y'all.

[–] Triumph@fedia.io 17 points 1 day ago

From someone who has been on the caffeine pony - caffeine withdrawal is no joke. If he's been deprived of his diet cokes for medical reasons, it makes total sense that they'd give him some right before a televised address read from a teleprompter that he wasn't supposed to deviate from.

[–] aramis87@fedia.io 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)

A 12oz Diet Coke is 46mg caffeine. A cup of coffee is about 150mg.

[–] tal@lemmy.today 8 points 1 day ago

Yeah, came here to say this. Soda generally doesn't have a lot of caffeine compared to coffee.

load more comments (1 replies)

They must have meant diet cocaine. As in not cut with sugar.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] Bonifratz@piefed.zip 31 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

100% of all jobs created since I took office have been in the private sector.

Even Trump has forgotten all about DOGE.

[–] DagwoodIII@piefed.social 26 points 1 day ago (3 children)

MTG is smarter than we've given her credit for.

She was the first rat off the ship, and she'll be playing off her 'independent' stance up until 2028.

"MAGA listened to Trump, and we paid the price for supporting the wrong man! He wasn't true to the cause but I am!"

[–] gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world 16 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Still stupid enough to have gotten on to the ship in the first place

[–] snooggums@piefed.world 17 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (1 children)

Pretty sure she perspnally benefitted from being on the ship and hasn't had any negative repercussions.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] glimse@lemmy.world 15 points 1 day ago (6 children)

Don't give her that credit. She stopped getting what she wanted so she bailed. She was not the first rat off the ship either. She didn't come to her senses or anything.

That said, I support her efforts to splinter the party. Not because I agree with her but because it benefits me

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] theneverfox@pawb.social 14 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

MTG got approached by a group of consultants promising her the presidency

Have you listened to her lately? She sounds like Kamala during the second half of her mini-campaign

[–] GaryGhost@lemmy.world 11 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

I hope she runs for president, the only thing this country hates more than people of color is women, insta win for the Dems, or hopefully a different party altogether

[–] theneverfox@pawb.social 6 points 21 hours ago

Before you get too excited, there's a non-zero chance its her vs Kamala...

[–] gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world 6 points 22 hours ago (3 children)

So MTG is saying the president did a great job and that she wouldn't change any of his policies if she was elected president?

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] SanctimoniousApe@lemmings.world 26 points 17 hours ago (3 children)

Blows my mind that even a third of people still support this putz - I knew the human race had plenty of assholes, but that's absurd. Wonder just how many die-hards will be left at the peak of the massive recession Trump has set up to happen next year.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] snekerpimp@lemmy.world 19 points 1 day ago (2 children)

More like “Why don’t you like me?” rant. What an absolute baby

[–] meco03211@lemmy.world 6 points 23 hours ago

The "pick me" girl of presidents.

[–] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 18 points 23 hours ago

Trump desperately hoping the mindset in the military is like "I would never follow illegal orders for only $1,775 dollars! Show me the money!". Trump mistakenly believing he can buy and sell honour because he does not have any and cannot recognize it. He doesn't understand how standing up for a principle doesn't make you an automatic sucker or loser.

[–] Zagam@piefed.social 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I didn't watch it but I was hoping for a Budd Dwyer moment.

[–] BrundleFly2077@sh.itjust.works 17 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Hey, man. Nice shot. Good shot, man.

[–] Lushed_Lungfish@lemmy.ca 16 points 21 hours ago

Oh if only he'd feel the chill of the grave.

[–] DarkFuture@lemmy.world 14 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

I mean it's his 2nd term, he's almost dead, and it's not like the treasonous Republican party is going to oust him.

So all we're going to get out of this is maybe some raised blood pressure because he's a narcissist and narcissists don't like knowing how many people don't like them. Doesn't really help us though.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 13 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

A speech like that killed Carter's presidency. What are the odds that will happen to Trump?

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] billwashere@lemmy.world 7 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

Any discomfort he’s feeling, I’m good with.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›